A busy day in Dorset!

Friday 21 September 

What a busy day we had today! It all started off ok with a leisurely get up. It is really starting to get a bit cooler in the mornings now and is a sign for sure that southern France and Spain are calling. Mind you the cold is nothing to the Pendleton blankets and we are lovely and warm in bed. So warm neither of us want to get up in the morning to put the kettle on. Luckily, we do not have to get out of bed to put the heater on and when we do it is roasting in no time at all.

We decided that we would do 5 things today, first was Lulworth Cove,then Durdle Door next, the Tolpuddle Martyrs museum and on to Thomas Hardy’s Cottage. Oh, and the 5th is Morrison’s - we are completely out of food.

So, first stop Lulworth Cove. Kevin has sailed past the cove on a number of occasions but has never been into the cove before. Lulworth Cove is of course famous for the geology that makes it. It must be a geologists heaven. We learnt from watching the DVD (£12.99 available at the counter) that in fact the cove is made of 5 different types of stone Portland Stone, Purbeck limestone, Wealden lay, Greensand and chalk. Over time the sea and weather has eroded the minerals and washed it all away making what we see today. It is of course still eroding and eventually it will disappear, no doubt as previous coves have done so before them. 

We had a leisurely walk around the small village which is predominately geared up for the tourist industry with a few shops and restaurants. We then made our way down the road to the beach a saw the cove for the first time. It’s great, very impressive and you can spend quite some time just looking at the huge slabs of Portland rock next to the softer clay and chalk. It easy to see how over time the sea has taken its toll.

We then walked up to the top of the hill and took a look at Stair Hole which is an erosion in action. You can see where the sea has broken through the Portland stone and made caves which have collapsed and been washed away. Eventually, this ‘hole’ will join up with Lulworth and the Cove will be changed forever. 

After a look around the Heritage centre we made our way to Durdle Door, It is only a couple of miles from the Cove but much higher up the cliffs. We drove through a campsite to get to the car park which felt a bit odd but came out the other end to a large pay and display car park. The walk down to Durdle Door is steep and the path is powdered Portland stone which makes it slippy under foot. The walk down is well worth it as you are rewarded with a fantastic views of the massive arch and across to Portland island. The beach is made of small pieces of ground stone (fish tank size). We arrived back up the top hot and ready for lunch.

Next it was off to the Tolpuddle Martyrs museum. There are a lot of ‘Puddles” around these parts, Tolpuddle being one of them. The museum was built by the unions and has 6 houses (Alms houses I suppose) for people who have served the unions well through their lives. We didn’t see Arthur there though!! The museum is very small but quite interesting if you are interested in how unions came about and the suffering of the Tolpuddle 6 it really is a shocking story of how things used to be. 

Finally, we went to Thomas Hardy’s Cottage. This is something Petra had been looking forward to for ages as she is an avid reader of his works. We parked Campy in the small car park and made our way along the path through the woods. It was a lovely walk and reminded us of the woodlands in Sutton Park where we both were raised. Eventually the path brings you to the back of the cottage and you have to walk around the other side to gain entry.

The cottage is lovely, thatched and rustic with a cottage garden, well past its best by now but still showing charm and interest. In the house the first thing that we noticed was the smoke. Unfortunately, the fire had been lit and the house was full of smoke. We think it was because the air was so still there was no draft to take the smoke away. Anyway, we made our way around the cottage with its whitewashed walls and uneven floors. There was lots of information in each room about it’s use in Hardy’s day. Small rooms and very low beams.

Finally we stocked up on provisions in Morrison’s before making our way back to the site in Chickerill.